Octobe﻿r and November have been busy months. At the end of October we had a 4 gig weekend, starting with the Ceres Fruit Growers awards evening at Waverley Hills on 30 December, the Mayoral Golf Day on the 31st of October in the afternoon at Ceres, the Castle Rock Beer experience that same evening at Olive Rock and the Beer Fest at the Winterberg inn the following morning on 1 November.It was action packed and very rewarding.The next weekend in November, we had a double feature on Saturday 8 November, starting with a fund raiser in the Breerivier Valley and then a wedding at Olive Rock for a Johannesburg bride who was particularly complimentary of the group.This weekend (28 and 29 November) the band will be performing on both nights at the "Gydosig Liggiesfees" and had to turn down two weddings on account of having been booked already.They will have three gigs next week on 5 December in Stellenbosch and 6 and 7 December at Klondyke Cherry Festival.

There is a wonderful, post tour vibe amongst the group and they are all very bonded in deed.It is so great to see this group grow in confidence, stature and become empowered, thanks to the support and generosity of so many people.

I have so much gratitude to all that made this dream come true. Firstly to Charles Banks who sponsored our travel and accommodation. This was an enormous gesture of kindness,, compassion and caring for the less privileged in our area and we will be eternally grateful. We are grateful to every single person who contributed, be it simply buying a CD, or putting some coins in our busking box and to those who were more generous. I am particularly in awe and grateful to our children, who, along with their friends and colleague's contributed more than half of the monies raised for this amazing opportunity. Your caring, energy and support of us an our endeavors are simply "lump in the throat stuff" and we are eternally grateful to you all.We are already busy with phase 2 of this project where we are planning to hire a premises in Wolseley town, source more instruments and get the next wave of youngsters trained in playing marimbas. We plan to establish the amaWolseley Cultural Association and start this with a marimba school and grow from here. You have all assisted us in achieving a dream thought impossible by many and have given us the tools to take this forward and to be able to leave a legacy of empowerment, and to be able to "Heal the world, one beat at a time". Words cannot express our gratitude to everyone.

The headmaster of Wolseley Sekonder, where the kids attend high school asked if the children could play at morning assembly so we were up early Monday and once again loading the instruments.The band played the three songs that their peers knew best - Waka waka, Mamma Mia and Fireworks. They literally brought the house down and the rest of the children could not stay in their seats - they were up dancing and cheering and it was so good to see the positive effect that this band has had on their community, thanks to this wonderful opportunity that has been afforded them by the very kind and generous Charles Banks.The plan is now for forge forward and implement phase two where we will secure a second set of marimbas, find a venue in Wolseley and employ the current band members to teach the next wave of marimba players. We fully believe this is possible. To this end we have already a applied for NPO status and submitted a business plan to get this program going.

We arrived home late on Saturday afternoon, tired but happy. Cherryleigh's family was there to meet her and had space for another two passengers. The rest of us piled back into the double cab with trailer, but we needed to tie some of the instruments on the roof to make space for two who had to travel in the back. Before we hit the R300, we had 5 sleeping band members and this was the case all the way to Wolseley. We dropped the kids off with some very happy parents and there were some very emotional reunions.A good nights sleep was on the cards for all. The next day was Sunday and I believe most slept through that too.

All good things must come to an end at some point and it was now 6 am and "time to say goodbye". We were humbled and warmed by the kindness, warmth, hospitality and support from all the expats living in Dubai. You really made our trip very special and something for us all to treasure for ever. A big thank you from Paul, Peppi, Jemile, Emilda, Gavin, Gersh, Jay-Brian, Cherry-leighAshley.

Today we were all spoilt rotten by the wonderful Dubai hospitality from the expat South Africans and Zimbabweans. We were invited by Hugh Born for a ride on his boat. We arrived at the home of Hugh and Lynn Born who live on the Palms in Dubai and half the group went on the boat ride to the Burj al Arab which is the only 7 star hotel in the world. The other half of the crew were able to take kayaks and row out on the water in front of their lovely home.

After an exhilarating morning on the water another very special person in Dubai invited us to lunch at her home. Sue Fletcher is from Zimbabwe and open her home to a hungry group of children and spoilt us all rotten. They swam and washed off the salty sea water from the Arabial Gulf.

It was now time to prepare for our evening concert at the Fridge. It was still beastly hot and we made the mistake of packing the instruments into the transport a couple of hours before the show which resulted in the drum skin going soft and some of the notes going flat. I don't think the audience noticed a thing though. Robyn had done an amazing job of securing us this venue and gathering so many people to come and enjoy the show. There was even a lady who had been in Dubai for 12 years, but had attended school in Wolseley. The band once again gave a sterling performance and got their first standing ovation. There were people in the audience who came and said how the band had made them homesick for South Africa. We were once again very proud of them.

We still had another treat lined up for the day and that was a delicious meal at Nando's. This was arranged by Michelle, a friend of Robyn's who is marketing manager for Nando's. This is like no Nandos I have ever experienced. It was out on the terrace near the Dubai Mall and whilst we were served the most delicious treats, from starters to mains and deserts, we had a view of the beautiful musical fountains. We had been spoilt with the most amazing Dubai hospitality and kindness from start to finish and our trip was about to end. It was now time to go home and once again wrap our instruments for travel. This process takes quite a while and it was after midnight before we went to bed, but some of the youngsters never slept at all. We had to get up at 4.30 am in order to get everyone up, packed and off to the airport for our flight home. The children were now quite hyped up about being reunited with family and friends. We have been exceptionally blessed by everyone in Dubai - extremely grateful.

Robyn had secured a rental and together with her Xtrail, and Paul driving, we navigated the streets of Dubai and got to see the Dubai Mall with its aquarium and famous shops. Needless to say no shopping was done by the SA crew with our week currency. They got to see the Buri Khalifa which is the highest building in the world. We then proceeded to another shopping center which was slightly more affordable and let the crew loose for a little shopping to buy gifts for family back home. We made them lunch at the Villa and suggested that the rested to get over a bit of jet lag before. They had a surprise waiting - a desert safari. Paul and I were not booked on this as we were going to have dinner with our daughter and her boyfriend Mark. This was to be the only time we had together and it was priceless.The dessert safari consisted of riding, literally surfing sand dunes in 4X4, then getting to ride on camels and having a traditional meal, complete with belly dancers and henna tattoos etc.